‘Time to stop all the rumours’ – Max Verstappen confirms F1 future with ‘clear’ statement
After much speculation, Max Verstappen has confirmed his plans for F1 2026.
Max Verstappen has confirmed he will remain a Red Bull driver for the F1 2026 season after rumours of a move to Mercedes.
Speculation had been rife that the reigning World Champion could be on the move to the Silver Arrows next season, but the Dutch driver confirmed ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix that he will be staying with his current employer.
Max Verstappen: ‘It’s time to stop the rumours’ over F1 future
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
While Verstappen holds a contract with Red Bull until the end of 2028, it was understood a performance element of his deal would have allowed him to move to a rival team had he been below fourth in the Drivers’ Championship by the summer break.
That is mathematically impossible heading into the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, but the four-time World Champion assured that his mind was focused on the job at hand.
Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko had claimed earlier this week that Verstappen will be staying at Red Bull, calling the idea of a move for a regulatory reset “nonsensical”, but this is the first confirmation from the driver himself that he will be staying put.
He took a playful jab at “the amount of nice stories” to come from speculation surrounding his future, but he said he has been in consistent dialogue with Red Bull about hitting the ground running in the F1 2026 season, which may not have been the case had he planned on moving elsewhere.
More on the F1 2026 driver market
👉 F1 2026 driver line-up: Which drivers are already confirmed for 2026?
👉 F1 driver contracts: What is the current contract status of every driver on the 2025 grid?
When asked outright if he can say for sure he will be at Red Bull next season, Verstappen confirmed to media including PlanetF1.com: “Yeah.
“It’s quite interesting to follow all that, the amount of nice stories certainly that came out of it.
“But for me, I’ve never really said anything about it because I was just focused on talking to the team about how we can improve our performance, future ideas for next year as well, and that’s why I have nothing really to add ever.
“But I think it’s time to basically stop all the rumours and, for me, it’s always been quite clear that I was staying anyway.
“I think that was also the general feeling in the team anyway, because we were always in discussions about what we could do with the car.
“I think when you’re not interested in staying then you also stop talking about these kind of things – and I never did.”
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